User talk:Bateman10

ZaaBiz is a business networking website, launched on October 1, 2007. It was originally launched under the name LinkYa, however it was renamed ZaaBiz in December 2007. ZaaBiz was created to fill the gap in business networking sites in Australia. Many Australians have jumped on MySpace, Facebook, however these sites are heavily americanised and offer little to enhance the business contacts for Australians. ZaaBiz’s aim is to connect more business people within Australia and beyond. ZaaBiz was founded by Michael Brecht, a former Director and Board Member of GE Capital IT Solutions in London and CompuNet in Germany.

Having moved to Australia 4 years ago, Michael Brecht realised the potential for a social networking platform downunder, and so founded ZaaBiz. Within weeks of launching the site, ZaaBiz sparked the attention of the Australian media and articles were featured in The Australian IT, Entrepreneur, Illawarra Mercury, and The Age. The site has more than a few thousand active users worldwide with the majority from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The site is free to users for Standard Membership and charges a small month fee of $9.50 for Premium Membership. Currently there are no advertising or banner ads on the site; however it may appear at a later stage with the Standard Membership. ZaaBiz maintains its professionalism and business focus by only allowing members 18 or older to join. Users create profiles that often contain a photo and lists of business interests and skills, as well as personal interests. Users can exchange private messages to contacts, and join groups with common interests plus also create their own group. The viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from confirmed contacts. The feel is very professional which makes the ZaaBiz network highly effective. It is unnecessary to spend hours uploading, downloading, browsing or being distracted. ZaaBiz offers a distraction-free environment to enhance business networking. One of the best features on ZaaBiz is being able to view all the profiles in the various degrees of separation. If a member clicks on a contact’s contact, then the member will be able to view all the connections in between. It’s great to witness how “six degrees of separation” really works. This feature really makes ZaaBiz stand out from other networking sites.

Site features: Start Page & Your Profile The Start Page gives you an update at a glance. Who has joined most recently, who were the last members to view your profile, how many messages do you have and are there any contact requests to reply to. Members usually upload their photo in their Profile. This is encouraged in a business network environment as people like to see who they are doing business with as well as reading other background information. It also increases the click-rate substantially.

Advanced Search & Power Search The most popular functions on ZaaBiz are the Search and Advanced Search functions, where users can type in keywords and search for members. Keywords can be used in fields such as industry, interests, location, name and many more.

Groups & Events ZaaBiz Premium Members are able to form their own business groups with the benefit of forums, articles and newsletters. This is a great way to keep group members interested and also attract new members and contacts. Another feature on ZaaBiz is the events. Listing an event is an effective way for members to let contacts know about upcoming meetings in their micro-network and to organize social gatherings. Events can be public, private, or personal (calendar note).

See also Facebook Myspace Xing Linkedin

--Bateman10 (talk) 16:35, 20 March 2008 (UTC)